OMC: Do you have any favorite television shows that you DVR and anything that you watch on a regular basis that you really like?

JF: Well, I'm a big fan of TiVo and DVR. It ..

OMC: Kind of changes your life doesn't it?

JF: It absolutely has changed my life. For the better, you're right. There are shows I watch now that I wouldn't watch if I didn't have it. It's a really convenient way to watch them. And, I can watch them more quickly and sort of work my way through a real time show with all the commercials and breaks which may or may not fit into your schedule.

I enjoy watching "The Office." That's a big favorite. And, I TiVo. I like the news so I'll record the BBC news broadcast and try and catch that in the evening. And, I can kind of get through it. If there's something I'm not interested in, zip through that part; skip over it. I like to look for stand up comedy shows on Comedy Central and things like that too. Plus, it gives you something to do when you're on the treadmill and it makes the time go.

OMC: Do you have an iPod?

JF: I have an iPod. Another technology that I found changed my life. It's such a tremendous tool to reconnect you with your music collection. Like a lot of people … you're busy and just taking the time to sort through that stack of CDs that starts at the floor and, you know, goes up about five feet, and they're here, and they're in that room, and they're in that drawer, and all that.

So, I've slowly got the majority of my favorite music collection, about 3,600 songs or something like that, on my iPod and I can take it in my car. I love traveling with it on an airplane; and just put that thing on shuffle mode and, "Oh yeah! That. I haven't heard that in years, and a great song," and it's so easy to sort through it and I can carry the whole darn thing in my shirt pocket, you know. So, it's terrific. I love it and I use it on a regular basis.

OMC: What's your definition of success?

JF: I think on a personal level the definition of success is finding fulfillment and enjoyment in what you do. So, frankly, I think that applies a lot to what's necessary for business success. Of course, growing your business and making some profit is essential in order for business to continue on into the future. So, that's important to us. But, we went through an exercise recently where we sat down and wrote down things that are important to us and it (profit) really became an add-on at the end. It's like, do you think maybe we should include that? Yeah, I guess.

So, success in a business is I think getting the group to work together towards one goal and focus as one team although there's multiple teams within the team or divisions. And, helping people. We're a very service oriented culture here and we feel like that's what we get enjoyment from doing and what we do. What distinguishes us best from a lot of our competitors is how willing we are to go the extra mile, or take the extra steps, to make sure somebody's really content, and happy, and enjoying the purchase they made. So, we know that, if we do our job well, that the things that we offer people can really enhance their lives. And, there's a lot of terrific stuff. Yeah, you can spend way too much watching TV. I don't spend a lot of my time watching TV but what I do watch I really enjoy. And, it does make my day better.

OMC: Do you think for those reasons that's why you guys have been able to compete with the Best Buys and the Wal-Marts of the world?

JF: Absolutely. Yeah. All of our salespeople -- this is a career for them it's not just a job. It's a point in their life. I can't even tell you how many of our team have been in this business 5, 10, 20, 25 years even. So, they have a lot of passion for music. They enjoy music. They enjoy movies. They talk about them all the time. They read the magazines. They do it in their free time. So, that passion provides a lot of energy and a lot of the impetus for us to, you know, weather the changes and the challenges.

OMC: Please tell us a little bit about the recent consumer electronics show and kind of what's cool now and kind of what's coming up and what you're really excited about. Were you at the show?

JF: Well, probably the one thing you take away from the consumer electronics show is the size and the energy surrounding it and how much it's grown in the last 10 years or so.

It's really, as I said a convergence between two industries; the computer industry and the home entertainment/consumer electronics industry. The big thing this year was a lot of talk about new digital TV technology. Larger panels and the highest possible video quality and definition, 1080P's a big thing.

So, there's kind of a race among the manufactures to have the biggest possible 1080P panel, 100 inches, 100 plus inches we were seeing this year. They're extraordinary. The pictures are incredible.

The other one is the bringing together the computer content, both video and audio content that people have on a hard drive computer now, and enabling that to be enjoyed over your home entertainment system. So, those are two separate technologies in a lot of people's home but they're slowly … merging together and talking together.

The other day for some reason I didn't catch "The Office" and somehow it got erased from the TiVo. We went and watched it on the computer. And, I have a lot of music on my computer that I transfer to my iPod. I'll also be able to just listen to all that music from the computer onto my stereo system. Soon, we won't have to stream that stuff from the computer to the TV. The computer's going to be in the same room with the TV. That's the next big thing from companies like Apple is to move the computer into the living room, family room, from the den or the home office where it's at now.

OMC: In terms of Apple, do you guys service Apple products or do you just an authorized retailer?

JF: We're an authorized reseller for the Apple iPod products. It took a lot of work for a small, independent retailer in Milwaukee to get recognized by Apple. But, we finally got some of their higher-level people to come out and see our store and what we're doing here. They were duly impressed and understand that where they're going in kind of where we're going and, you know, trying to bring that Mac computer, which I have one, into the home entertainment technology of the home. And so, they see a store like us will be able to help them do that.

OMC: Do you think there'll ever come a point where you'll have another Downtown location?

JF: Another good question. I don't have any immediate plans to but I think it's something to think about. Wouldn't that be an irony? I think there's probably a very good possibility of that at some point in the future. We've chosen to be a one-store operation for much of our life and probably it was because of the level of service that we're trying to provide. So, we'll see. But obviously, there's a lot of energy and vitality Downtown, a lot of people living there … our whole thing is making it easy for people.

OMC: And my final question I like to ask everyone is if you had a chance to have a beer or a cup of coffee with anyone who would it be and why?

JF: Wow. My goodness. Geez. I'll tell you one name that pops up into my mind, I'm not sure why, is Jimmy Carter. I've been reading a little bit about the Carter Center. He's a little controversial right now because of his new book, but I am so impressed with what he's done in his post-presidential life.

To deal with sickness and health issues and political issues around the world, it's a pretty amazing little think tank. And, it isn't just a thinking but actually a doing group that he's set up there and it really intrigues me. I had a chance to travel to Africa with my two sons a few years ago and it was a very eye opening experience. It helped me realize some of the challenges that the world faces and we as the wealthiest, most successful country in the world need to accept our responsibility for leading some of the changes that the world needs.